Escalators are mechanized, moving stairs. These mechanisms include a plurality of platform-components that are connected in an endless loop. The platform-components are arranged to circulated so as to resemble moving stairs. People stand on the platform-components, and thus are transported either up or down the moving stairs by the movement of the platform-components. Prior Art FIG. 1 shows an illustration of part of a conventional escalator.
Another variety of such mechanisms are moving walkways which are based on a similar concept, except that the platform-components are arranged to resemble moving, elongated platforms which are actually made up of a loop of connected the platform-components. These moving walkways are also known as travelators.
When such escalators and moving walkways are used, the people stand on the upper surfaces (tread plate) on the platform-components, and hence, the upper surfaces on which people stand, during such use, will be referred to in this specification as standing-surfaces of the platform-components.
Prior art FIG. 2 shows a conventional platform-component 20 which has an alternating series of elongate, parallel valleys and peaks that, in operation, generally align axially with the travel direction of the platform-components.
Over the last few decades, many thousands of such escalators and moving walkways have been installed in various locations, such as in office buildings, shopping centers, airports, for example, however, over a period of time, it has become necessary to enhance the standing-surfaces of those existing escalators.
For example, the standing-surfaces of escalators may need to be enhanced to address the issue of the standing-surfaces tending to become slippery, particularly during rainy periods when the soles of the users' shoes are wet.
Also, the standing surfaces of newly-installed escalators and moving walkways may need to be enhanced to address the issue of the standing-surfaces becoming slippery.
A known solution to this problem of the standing-surfaces being able to become slippery, particularly when wet and/or soiled, is for the manufacturer of the escalator to enhance the surface of the standing-surfaces by arc-spraying a material onto the standing-surfaces. The resulting surface has a sandpaper-like characteristic. This provides the standing-surfaces with greater friction which is intended to minimize the likelihood of users slipping on the standing-surfaces, particularly during wet weather.
Another known solution to this problem is for the manufacturer to provide cuts or abrasions to the surface of the standing-surfaces. This, once again, is intended to provide the standing-surfaces of the escalator with greater friction in order to minimize the likelihood of slippage by the users particularly when the standing-surfaces become wet and/or soiled.
There are, however, several disadvantages inherent in the above approaches, as follows:
There is considerable expense involved in disassembling an escalator or walkway so that the individual platform-components can be taken away to the manufacturer's off-site facility for repair enhancement.
The known enhancement methods, such as arc-spaying or physical cutting of the surfaces, are expensive.
Moreover, during the time period when the escalator is shut down, there is considerable inconvenience caused. For example, the closure of an escalator in a shopping centre can cause severe disruption to shoppers trying to move around the shopping centre. Also, when individual platform-components are removed from an escalator to be taken away for enhancement at the manufacturer's facility, the resulting gap in the escalator structure means that people cannot even walk up and down the motionless escalator.
Furthermore, it can sometimes take a week or two, for example, for platform-components to be enhancement off-site, which means that the abovementioned inconvenience can be exacerbated by the length of time often needed to restore the escalator to operation.
Another situation where the standing-surfaces of an escalator or moving walkway has to be enhanced is where one or more of the peaks become damaged. For example, if a hard object such as a wedding ring, screw, coin, stone or piece of metal were to be dropped onto a standing-surface, it would be carried along on the standing-surface until it reaches the end of the exposed moving portion of the escalator, ending at a location 16 where the standing-surfaces move under a comb plate and under the ground surface 9 portion, shown in FIG. 1. The hard object could become lodged at that location 16 where the moving standing-surfaces meet the stationary comb plate. At this location 16, the hard object can continue to scour or abrade the standing-surfaces as these move past continuously. In these situations, the damage would tend to be restricted to a localized area on the standing-surface, typically affecting either one or two peaks. Such localized damage still requires disassembling the escalator so that the individual platform-components can be taken away to the manufacturer's facility for repair enhancement.
Discussion of prior art herein, either individually or in combination, is not to be taken as an admission of common general knowledge of the skilled addressee of this specification.
An object of the present invention is to overcome or at least ameliorate one or more of the problems in the prior art, or to provide an improved alternative.